


One More Time, Redux

by DevBasaa



Series: Moments In and Out of Time [9]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Ficlet, M/M, Missing Scene, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-06-02
Packaged: 2018-02-03 02:20:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1727546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevBasaa/pseuds/DevBasaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Asset doesn't understand why, but he needs to see this man, his mission, one more time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One More Time, Redux

**Author's Note:**

> As the title suggests, the story links back to the first of the series. A short fic before heading into the larger, final parts. Thanks for reading!

_”I’m with you till the end of the line”_

The words should mean nothing. Nothing. But the sudden strong sense of _I know this_ and the spike of heart rate and breathing that goes beyond pain, beyond his training, beyond everything The Asset knows, tells him it isn’t _nothing_.

How can this man, his _mission_ make him feel ANYTHING!?

When he watches him fall, he first thinks: _Good. Mission accomplished_. But as that body crashes into the water and sinks, without resistance, a panic rises inside him that erupts like a scream. Like living a nightmare.

The Asset lets go of the bolster he dangles from and drops into the water below.

What is he doing?

How is he doing this?

He always keeps the secret that he retains fragments of memories, including the knowledge that they use machines to wipe his mind. Every act he’s doing right now goes against everything he knows. It goes against every ounce of his training.

And yet he doesn’t hesitate.

He drags his mission from the cold water and drops him on the riverbank. The fingers of his flesh hand are going numb; he needs to slam his body against a tree and reduce his shoulder.

But he waits. And watches. Until the man breaths, he can’t lessen the panic that swirls through his mind—a complete contrast to every moment of his life that he’s known.

So what else does he not know?

He does not know this man. But he _senses_ him. Like muscle memory from his countless training sessions, his _body_ knows this man even if his brain does not.

And yet how can that be?

The Asset turns away and climbs slowly over the loose stone and broken branches of the riverside, looking for a sturdy enough tree to slam against.

But then he stops.

_One more time._

_He just needed to see him one more time._

The Asset turns. He watches the man’s chest rise and fall. It is harder than he can understand to walk away from this man. He feels compelled to stand near him, to watch him breathe—he knows he needs to see slow, easy, deep breaths to be calm again.

What a thing to need?

Like pulling a magnet from metal, The Asset forces himself forward. He needs to find a tree.

And a base.

For once, it is time that his handlers report for _him_.

 

END


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